A survey of television weathercasters conducted by George Mason University researchers shows that two-thirds are interested in reporting on climate change, and more than half are skeptics of the phenomenon.
The survey comes at a time when only a handful of TV news stations employ a dedicated science reporter.
Ultimately, the team hopes to turn TV meteorologists nationwide into a reliable source of informal science education about climate change.
E20 fuel, which blends 20 percent ethanol with gasoline, reduces the tail pipe emissions of hydrocarbons and carbon monoxide, compared with traditional gasoline or E10 blends, according to a new study in the Journal of Automobile Engineering. In addition, the research found no measurable impact to vehicle drivability or maintenance in conventional internal combustion engines.
E20, the study's authors say, could be used to reduce overall vehicle emissions at a time when many states and the U.S. Department of Transportation are considering policies that would increase the ethanol percentage in standard gasoline. The results are also being used by the Environmental Protection Agency to promote the federal Renewable Fuel Standard program.
Type 2 dopamine receptors (D2DR)—brain receptors that play a key role in addiction--also play a key role in rats' heightened response to food, according to Scripps Insititute Neuroscientists.
The findings suggest that the same brain mechanisms that fuel drug addiction in humans may also accompany the emergence of compulsive eating behaviors and the development of obesity.
The study was published today in Nature Neuroscience.
When investigators gave rats access to varying levels of high-fat foods, they found unrestricted availability alone can trigger addiction-like responses in the brain, leading to compulsive eating behaviors and the onset of obesity.
A new study from University of Utah psychologists suggests that most people are lousy drivers when talking on their cell phones. But a small group of people with an extraordinary ability to multitask can safely drive while chatting, according to a study in Psychonomic Bulletin and Review.
These individuals – described by the researchers as "supertaskers" – constitute only 2.5 percent of the population. They are so named for their ability to successfully do two things at once: in this case, talk on a cell phone while operating a driving simulator without noticeable impairment.
Euthanasia is a polarizing term that confuses the debate about dying and should no longer be used by physicians, say the authors of an editorial in the Canadian Medical Association Journal.
"The end of life debate seems particularly burdened by confusion over the term 'euthanasia'," the authors write. "Both sides use it to further their ideological views: one side says murder, the other mercy; the right to live versus the right to die with dignity; selfishness versus compassion."
Scientists have discovered the world's smallest superconductor, a sheet of four pairs of (BETS)2GaCl4 molecules less than one nanometer wide.
Their new Nature Nanotechnology study provides the first evidence that nanoscale molecular superconducting wires can be fabricated, which could be used for nanoscale electronic devices and energy applications.
Coastal microbes may offer a smart solution for plastic contamination in the world's oceans, according to research presented at the Society for General Microbiology's spring meeting.
The research shows that the combination of marine microbes that can grow on plastic waste varies significantly from microbial groups that colonize surfaces in the wider environment. This raises the possibility that the plastic-associated marine microbes have different activities that could contribute to the breakdown of these plastics or the toxic chemicals associated with them.
A team of neuroscientists claim it is possible to influence people's moral judgments by disrupting a specific brain region called the the right temporo-parietal junction (TPJ).
The study offers "striking evidence" that the right TPJ, located at the brain's surface above and behind the right ear, is critical for making moral judgments, the authors say.
